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Black Lab Portrait, Work in Progress

I have 'roughed in' the lights and darks and have created my roap map in which I will go thru and refine details in this pet portrait. This is done in oils and the glare of wet paint is hard to avoid so I apologize for the poor quality photo. I will be brightening up the eyes and giving definition to the dog's face and expression. Close cropped photos like this are fun to work with because it becomes all about the eyes and expression so I plan on spending lots of time on that in future painting sessions. I have gotten what I think of as the 'bones' in now and will move on to the essense of the dog's expression. Stay tuned! On my easle I also have an elk painting, another dog painting, a large wolf painting, a cat paitning and a team of draft horses all in various stages of completion. I will post those soon.

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As a self-taught artist, I try to continually learn and refine my skills. I wrote in an earlier blog post an analogy between creating a beautiful life as one navigates life's peaks and valleys to lights and darks help in creating a beautiful painting.

I was reminded of how important contrast and composition are in paintings so I decided to give myself a refresher on focusing on the underlying composition.

I came across this painting tutorial so practiced the Notan painting strategy suggested in this lesson. Notan is pronounced No- tan and means just that No tan or strictly black and white. The lesson suggests taking an image and reducing it to black and white so you can focus on the underlying composition.

I'll share my initial work here:

I took an image and cropped it closely until I liked it. I painted a rough draft in black and white on a small board-- think this is 5 x 7. The dimensions didn't translate exactly to my reference so the proportions are slightly …

Navigating Peaks and Valleys
I had a tough day yesterday. I won't go into details but just suffice it to say in my non-art work life in a pediatric emergency room as a mental health tech, I am often witness to some of life's tougher moments. I find value in providing a calm, assuring presence and offers of appropriate comfort while maintaining healthy boundaries.

Being in an emergency room brings things into sharp focus. Being an artist has allowed me to appreciate my sensitive nature but being in intense situations and being 'sensitive' doesn't always go together. It takes some real navigating to keep my bearings, I'll be honest. Painting, art, and my horses allow me to recharge and balance myself. I would like to share with you some things I have learned. Since art is life, and life is art I will draw correlations between those two things and how they help me navigate life's peaks and valleys.

I am pleased to introduce to you my artist in training! He prefers a fast and abstract painting style. When not painting he enjoys studying nature, color theory, and digging into 3D sculpture work.

working in watercolors
Spending some time in the outdoors after studio time.

Studying shapes and light.
Exploring photography
sculpture

observing wildlife

Brushing up on color theory
enjoying some great lighting as the sun sets
more photography practice... reference photos maybe?

Enjoying some down time

Our next 'up and coming' artist, contemplating a self portrait.

One of those times when the beauty is just too much for words!
Maybe you have been able to gather I got to spent the past week with my grandbabies and adult children (and husband) at the beach. We were in OBX North Carolina. We stayed on the sound side with a short walk to the beach. It was ideal for our family. The sound side water is shallow with activities like fishing, kayaking, crabbing and paddle …